The concept came from The 60 Second Leader, a book by the Leadership Hub's founder, Phil Dourado, built around short daily habits instead of long training courses. IHG's senior learning leaders took the idea and we built the Leaders Lounge for them.

The real design problem was that leaders resist formal learning portals and say they have no time. Most leadership sites go unused for that reason. This one had to feel less like training and more like somewhere leaders wanted to drop in.

The idea was, in effect, a Facebook for leaders, a genuinely unusual pitch at the time, social media wasn't yet mainstream and Myspace was still a going concern. Each day, members received a leadership tip by email, linking through to an article written by leadership coach Phil Dourado.

Members could comment on articles and on each other's comments, like or dislike content, and the format expanded over time to include video, audio, quotes, and guest posts, turning a simple daily tip into an ongoing conversation rather than a one-way broadcast.

It worked. Use kept growing, the contract ran for nine years, and the platform helped IHG win four awards from three of the learning and development industry's most established bodies.

Two challenges ran through the entire project. The first was engagement: getting busy leaders to make time for anything daily, however short, is a genuinely hard problem, and one that had to be solved through format and content, not just reminders.

The second was trust. Publicly commenting on leadership and sharing personal experience in front of peers was new territory for most users, and the platform only worked once people believed it was a safe space to do that.

Underneath both, the tech stack of the time, Drupal and pre-mainstream social conventions, meant we were often building the pattern rather than following one.